Fragments of a Stained Glass Rose
by oneplusme
Summary: A collection of short, post-series stories
1. Stardust

In the autumn mountains  
The coloured leaves are falling.  
If I could hold them back,  
I could still see you.  
  
--Hitomaro  
(tr. Rexroth)  
  
  
  
Shoujo Kakumei Utena : Stardust  
-------------------------------  
  
  
Someday...  
  
It seemed so simple, then.  
  
The world, after all, is not so large. To a young girl with the  
certainty of hope in her heart the world seemed very small indeed.  
  
But now, as the last days of summer begin to fade, I'm not so certain  
anymore. Another year, and all I have are my thoughts of you.  
  
There is a chill in the air.  
  
I wrap my arms about myself more tightly and remember how you used to  
smile. For a moment I feel warm again.  
  
As the monk of the story told his young disciple, "this too shall pass".  
A lesson we should both have learned. With each passing day I feel you  
slipping away from me...  
  
Will I wake tomorrow without you?  
  
The sun sinks lower, filling the sky with colour; red-golden castles in  
the clouds. Beneath the lengthening shade of a willow tree I lay down  
and close my eyes.  
  
Will you come to me, my beautiful prince? Will you guard my sleep?  
  
The forest leaves tremble in the dying light, left far behind me as I  
climb the unending pathway into the darkness.  
  
I want to see you there, to lie with you beneath the infinite, shining  
skies. Your hair drifts softly about your shoulders, flowing like sand  
through my fingers.  
  
There are so many, many words to say... and as the moonlight shines in  
your eyes I know that none of them will ever matter.  
  
Stay with me, my prince. Stay with me until the sun rises, my love.  
My freedom.  
  
My eternity.  
  
And as the dawn light breaks I awaken with the memory of your smile, the  
warmth of your lips to kiss away my tears.  
  
  
Someday...  
  
  
  
FIN 


	2. Ruins

Shoujo Kakumei Utena : Ruins  
----------------------------  
  
  
I hate her.  
  
There - I've said it now. I truly wish that I didn't, but for what  
she's done to you... for what she's done, how could I not?  
  
I'm sorry. I know how much she means to you. I know, and it makes me  
want to scream in frustration. I don't think she could ever even  
understand why.  
  
Cruel innocence indeed.  
  
If things were different I think I might even have loved her. It would  
be so easy... But then I hardly need tell you that, do I, sister?  
  
We're so alike, she and I - perhaps she even loves you as much as I do.  
And neither of us can save you.  
  
Damn her. Damn her for all her strength and her beauty. Damn her for  
her ridiculous dreams. Damn her for letting you feel.  
  
If things were different... If. If. If. So many wasted wishes.  
  
And she'll win. I think you know it too. The Revolution burns in her  
blood, and for all their posturing and their skill, not one of those  
weaklings in the Council will ever know what that means.  
  
But for your sake I have at least to try.  
  
And as I hold her in my arms, as her skin burns beneath my lips and her  
breath whispers in my ears, know that I will break her. Because I love  
you.  
  
Come to me, Anthy. Let me kiss away your pain, if only for a moment.  
I hate her with every fibre of my being for doing this to you.  
  
And oh, how I wish things were different.  
  
  
  
FIN 


	3. Daybreak

Shoujo Kakumei Utena : Daybreak  
-------------------------------  
  
  
Sleep is such a strange thing; the leap into oblivion and back, the line  
in between almost imperceptible. When I finally open my eyes it feels  
like the very first time... like the beginning of the world.  
  
Far, far above the stars are dying, consumed by the lightening sky of  
the coming day. A chill wind sighs through the treetops, glassine  
leaves rustling like a thousand hushed voices, driving clammy tendrils  
of mist across the ground.  
  
I force myself to stand, my body stiffening in protest; the earth is  
hard, barren and cold. No flowers will ever grow in this forest.  
  
Still numb from the cold, I make my way slowly back towards the path I  
have walked so many, many times before. The trees seem almost to shift  
before me, leaving a myriad of tiny paths leading deeper into the  
darkness.  
  
Perhaps I never truly knew this place at all.  
  
At last, though, I find the familiar, well-worn stones beneath my feet.  
Almost without realising it I begin to walk, the rounded cobblestones  
seeming unerringly to fit the pattern of my footsteps. It is perhaps a  
minute before I finally stop, awareness returning with a chill that  
pierces my heart.  
  
The line is crossed.  
  
Before me the shattered base of the stairway rises steeply into the air,  
clawing at the sky like the macabre ruin of an arm thrust forth from the  
grave.  
  
And I long for oblivion to save me. Because I remember.  
  
Because I remember every word I said, every fleeting thought, every last  
terrible moment of what I did to you...  
  
...the touch of your hand...  
  
...and the words I never said.  
  
And I scream. I scream until I can barely breathe, until I have no  
tears left to cry and my throat burns raw. I scream because there are  
no words, because every endless moment of loss and pain and rage and  
hatred and bitter, aching regret is the purest, most terrible freedom.  
  
  
I finally come to myself once more huddled on my knees, the tattered  
rags of my dress stained with tears. Through burning eyes I make out  
something lying on the path before me - the broken hilt of a sword, the  
fragments of a rose crest still visible on the pommel.  
  
I lift the fractured blade between my hands, beyond caring as a thin  
rivulet of blood trickles darkly across the mirrored surface. The first  
rays of sunlight pour through the treetops, glinting from the jagged tip  
as I lift it high above my head.  
  
  
I swear I will find you.  
  
  
For the revolution of the world.  
  
  
  
FIN 


End file.
